The story of a woman who supposedly tattooed an advertisement
for the Great Barrier Reef on her arm to win a dream island job was
concocted by Tourism Queensland, it has been revealed.

The fake
YouTube video is just another example of Australian advertising
agencies' "crude" use of social media to promote brands, a
marketing expert says.

In its latest campaign, Tourism Queensland invited people to
send in a 60-second video of themselves to apply for a $150,000
caretaker job for Hamilton Island, which it dubbed "the best
job in the world".

Local and international media outlets last week reported
thousands of applicants had already sent in videos, including an
Australian woman called "Tegan" who supposedly showed herself
visiting a tattoo parlour to get a 10-centimetre tattoo proving her
love for the Great Barrier Reef.

But Tourism Queensland has since admitted "Tegan" was not a
genuine applicant, but a member of the ad agency that created the
campaign promoting the Great Barrier Reef islands.

It said the "fake" video, one of the first posted, was only
intended as a example of the creativity Tourism Queensland expected
from applicants, and to spur people to post their own videos.

But there was nothing on the video or the campaign website to
say the video was an example.

Marketing expert Tim Burrowes said the video showed Australian
ad agencies were starting to use social media - such as YouTube,
Twitter and Facebook - to promote their brands.

"Social media is a conversation between consumers and they are
trying to insert their brand into that conversation," Mr Burrowes
said.

"You're just seeing the beginnings now of Australian agencies
doing it, but they are not terribly sophisticated so far."

Mr Burrowes - who was first to expose the fake Tourism
Queensland video on his blog, Mumbrella - said Australian agencies'
efforts so far at using social media had been "a bit lame and
obviously faked up".

Many YouTube users sensed the Tourism Queensland tattoo video
was a fake, some pointing out that the applicant's skin was not
red, as it should be, after getting a tattoo.

Mr Burrowes also took aim at the weekend's story about a
24-year-old woman, Heidi Clarke, who has posted a video
on YouTube reportedly to track down a mystery man whose jacket
she found at a Sydney cafe.

Ms Clarke said she posted the clip because she was smitten with
the man and wanted to meet him.

"I'm convinced that's a fake, just the way she talks about the
jacket [and] how good the lining is ... it's almost becoming a
cliche for advertising agencies to do this now."

A newspaper said the label inside the jacket belonged to a
well-known clothing store that was about to launch the clothing
line.

"I really think this [devious approach] will bite a lot of
brands on the back side," Mr Burrowes said.

"Consumers are very cynical and the trust in these brands will
fall away.

"The danger now is every time there's something interesting on
some social media website people wont trust it - a lot of brands
have been quite short sighted."

Tourism Queensland believes its tactic has worked, with the
caretaker job having attracted 5800 applications by yesterday
afternoon, and 6000 expected to have been received by the end of
today.

More than 10,000 were expected to apply by the February 22
cut-off date.

Mr Burrowes acknowledged wide media coverage of the video had
helped the campaign, but said much of the campaign's success also
owed to its original "brilliant PR idea" of the working
holiday.

One of the best examples of a company using social media to
promote its products was that of Blendtec, a US company that makes
blenders, which has a series of YouTube
videos in which company founder Tom Dickson attempts to blend a
range of items.

The "Will it blend" series shows Mr Dickson blending avocados,
shoes, golf balls, and even an iPhone.

"I think the secret with social media is you want to go viral,
and to do that you have to be entertaining and then your brand gets
a nudge right on the corner of the story," Mr Burrowes said.

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